Coolaney, Cúil Áine, Co. Sligo

Cúil Áine · Co. Sligo

A small village on the Owenbeg with a national mountain-bike trail centre on the back door.

Coolaney is a village at the foot of the Ox Mountains, twenty kilometres south-west of Sligo town and a few minutes off the N17. It used to be small - barely 200 people at the 2006 census. It is now over a thousand. Most of the growth is housing, commuter traffic to Sligo and to Ballina, the kind of recent expansion that has changed the size but not the texture of the place.

The thing that has put Coolaney on the map for visitors is the National Mountain Bike Centre - a network of purpose-built singletrack trails on Coillte forestry above the village, the first major dedicated MTB site in the north-west. Phase one is open and ridden hard; the long-term plan is for around 80 kilometres of trail across the Ox ridge between here and the Wild Atlantic Way at Strandhill. The trails are free, waymarked, and rideable dawn to dusk. There is no hire on site - pick a bike up in Sligo town and drive out.

Beyond the bikes, Coolaney is a working village. A pub, a couple of shops, a primary school, a GAA pitch, a short river walk on the Owenbeg. The Ox Mountains rise immediately south - they are not Alps but they are the country's quietest range, and the trails into them are starting to draw a small crowd of walkers as well as cyclists. Treat Coolaney as a day-trip from Sligo if you ride, or as a base if you want to be on the trails first thing.

Population

~1,000

Walk score

Village in five minutes, MTB trails for hours

Coords

54.1689° N, 8.6033° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The bikes

National Mountain Bike Centre, Coolaney.

Purpose-built singletrack in the Coillte forest on the Ox Mountains above the village. Around 40 km open (5 blue, 11 red, 4 black) with an eventual 80 km network planned. Free to use, dawn to dusk. Hire from Sligo town.

Trails & outings → 02 The river

A short walk on the Owenbeg.

The Owenbeg river runs through the village. The short riverside path is the village walk - twenty minutes there and back. Fishing access is local-club managed.

Trails & outings → 03 The growth

From 200 to a thousand in twenty years.

Coolaney has gone from a small crossroads in 2006 (pop ~200) to a thousand-person village at the 2022 census. New estates, expanded school, commuter-belt for Sligo town. The MTB centre is the new chapter.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Coillte, Cycling Ireland, the Ox

The trail centre

The National Mountain Bike Trail Centre at Coolaney is the result of a multi-year partnership between Coillte (the State forestry company that owns the land), Cycling Ireland, Sligo County Council and local volunteers. The current network - around 40 km of waymarked singletrack split across 5 blue, 11 red and 4 black loops - opened in stages from the early 2020s out of the trailhead at the south end of the village. The eventual plan is for ~80 kilometres of trail across the Ox ridge linking inland Sligo to the Wild Atlantic Way. The trails are graded and signed; black-graded sections are serious.

Slieve Gamh in Irish

The Ox Mountains

The Ox Mountains run east-west across the south of Sligo from Lough Conn in Mayo to Ballysadare Bay. The Irish name Slieve Gamh has been translated as the storm mountains and as the mountain of the oxen - the modern English name is itself a back-translation. They are low, rolling, blanket-bog country with hard limestone underneath - never spectacular, often empty. Coolaney is at their northern foot. The trails climb up onto the ridge.

Pop 1,000, mostly since 2006

The new village

Coolaney is one of the fastest-growing villages in the north-west. New estates have gone in over the last fifteen years, the school has been expanded, and the population has roughly quintupled since 2006. The trade-off is that the village core still feels rural while the housing on the edge does not.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Coolaney MTB Trail Centre Waymarked singletrack, graded green to black. Trailhead at the south end of the village. Free. No hire on site - bring a bike or rent from Sligo.

Variable, 5-30 kmdistance

A morning or a daytime

Owenbeg riverside walk Down from the village green to the river, along the bank, back. The village walk - short, easy, useful for stretching legs after a drive.

1.5 km returndistance

30 mintime

Lavagh Beg ridge walk Climb out of the village into the Ox Mountains. Bog and limestone, sheep, no shelter. Map and compass weather.

8 km loopdistance

3 hourstime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Trails dry by April, the Ox starting to lift its head. Lambs everywhere on the lower slopes.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings on the trails. Trail centre busy on weekends - early on a Saturday or any weekday afternoon.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Best trail conditions of the year - firm, dry, cool. Light on the Ox ridge in October is the photographer's reason.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Trails get cut up. Black sections get serious. Stay on the lower loops or wait for a frost.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting bike hire on site

Coolaney has no on-site bike hire. Pick one up in Sligo town before you drive out. The trailhead has parking, a few benches and a board, nothing more.

Riding the black trails on a hire bike

The graded blacks are real - rock, drop, root. A hardtail off the rack will get you hurt. Stick to greens and blues if the bike isn't fit for it.

Walking the trails when bikes are running

The MTB trails are designated for bikes. Walking them on a busy Saturday is bad form and unsafe on blind sections. Walk the riverside or the Ox ridge instead.